Spike Lee: U.S. Government A Puppet Of Big Oil

US spending $16,000 for imam’s Mideast tour

WASHINGTON – American taxpayers will pay the imam behind plans for a mosque near the Manhattan site of the Sept. 11 attacks $3,000 in fees for a three-nation outreach trip to the Middle East that will cost roughly $16,000, the State Department said Wednesday.

The department said Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf will get a daily $200 honorarium for the 15-day tour to Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, which is intended to promote religious tolerance.

Airfare is included, as well as the standard federal government per diem for expenses and lodging in each of the cities he will visit, spokesman P.J. Crowley said. Those per diem rates range from nearly $400 to nearly $500, according to official documents.

Telephone and e-mail messages seeking comment from the imam’s organization, The Cordoba Initiative, weren’t immediately returned.

Rauf starts his tour Thursday in Bahrain and ends it in the United Arab Emirates Sept. 2. At each stop he is expected to discuss Muslim life in America and promote religious tolerance. He will not be allowed to raise funds for the mosque on the trip, Crowley said.

“We have had conversations with the imam to make sure he understands that during these kinds of trips, he’s not to engage in any personal business,” Crowley told reporters. “He understands that completely.”

“We value his participation as a religious figure here in the United States who can help people overseas understand the role that religion plays in our society,” he said.

Rauf’s tour has drawn attention because of his plans to build an Islamic center in lower Manhattan near ground zero. Foes of the project say it is insensitive and disrespectful to the victims of 9/11 and their families. The debate has become politicized ahead of November’s midterm congressional elections.

Crowley said this will be Rauf’s fourth U.S.-government sponsored trip under a program run by the State Department’s Bureau of International Information Programs. Earlier, the State Department had said it was his third trip.

Crowley said Rauf had traveled twice to the Middle East in 2007 during the Bush administration and once earlier this year.

On his upcoming trip, Rauf will be in Manama, Bahrain, from Thursday until Monday; Doha, Qatar, from Aug. 24 to Aug. 27 and in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates from Aug. 28 to Sept. 2.

The published maximum per diem rate for U.S. government employees in Manama is $396, in Doha it is $341, and in Abu Dhabi it is $496.

9/11 Heroes Blast Obama: Forget The Mosque, We’re Dying

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
Wednesday, Aug 18th, 2010

Hero 9/11 first responders, many of whom are sick and dying, have slammed Obama in an open letter for ignoring their plight while taking the time to outline views on a proposed mosque close to ground zero, the site of the 2001 attacks that felled the twin towers.

The letter, written by Jon Feal, head of the Fealgood Foundation, one of the largest and most vocal 9/11 responders’ groups, asks “Why have you failed us?”

“…your campaign said you supported the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which would provide us with the health care we earned through our service to this country. Since that time, though, you’ve said absolutely nothing about the heroes of 9/11. We thought you would be our champion, because the last administration failed us.” Feal’s letter continues.

Feal has worked tirelessly with other 9/11 responders to lobby lawmakers to introduce meaningful legislation to compensate and help care for rescue workers who are still suffering from respiratory problems and serious illnesses caused by toxic dust they were told by the EPA was safe to breathe during the cleanup effort.

He outlines how Obama has had to “be dragged kicking and screaming into providing help for 9/11 responders”, yet has still not fulfilled the campaign promises he made to help the heroes.

“…it is disturbing that you have the time and energy to speak in favor of the mosque, but not on the health crisis caused by the attacks.” the letter to Obama further states, also making clear that media driven controversy over the mosque is simply not an issue for the Fealgood Foundation.

“It is our understanding that you have never personally addressed the issue of 9/11 responders and survivors on your own, and that the only time you have even mentioned the issue was when you were confronted about it.” Feal adds.

“After nine years of speeches and tributes but no action, we’ve heard enough. And sir if you choose not to come to New York on the 9th anniversary, then I implore you to make a public statement saying you support 9/11 responders.” The letter concludes.

As The New York Daily News reports, the responders’ grievances with the president have been supported by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens), who has worked closely with them on promoting the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which fell short of a two-thirds vote in the House last month owing to Republican opposition.

“While I welcome President Obama’s comments on religious freedom, I can understand why John Feal and his fellow 9/11 responders would want to hear that the President supports their cause, too,” Maloney said.

As we noted yesterday in our feature article, Obama’s choice to address the issue of the proposed mosque, and voice support for the plan, equates to political suicide.

The important facet of this issue is not really about the rights and wrongs of the mosque, it’s about Obama politically choosing to lend support to something that he knows full well is vitriolically opposed by the vast majority of Americans.

**

Open Letter to President Obama from John Feal

Dear Mr. President:

Why have you failed us?

Two years ago, when you were asking for our votes for president, your campaign said you supported the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which would provide us with the health care we earned through our service to this country. Since that time, though, you’ve said absolutely nothing about the heroes of 9/11. We thought you would be our champion, because the last administration failed us. Thousands of brave men & woman need your voice & support.

While supporting or opposing the mosque near ground zero is not an issue for us, it is disturbing that you have the time and energy to speak in favor of the mosque, but not on the health crisis caused by the attacks. It is our understanding that you have never personally addressed the issue of 9/11 responders and survivors on your own, and that the only time you have even mentioned the issue was when you were confronted about it.

We’re sure your advisers will say that you put $150 million in the budget this year for 9/11 health programs, and that shows your support for our cause – but we both know that 1) this is not even close to what you committed to support during the campaign, and 2) your administration has had to be dragged kicking and screaming into providing help for 9/11 responders – in fact, you only pledged the $150 million when you were pressed on the issue.

9/11 responders and survivors with lifelong illnesses need guaranteed health care, not a single year’s funding. Your budget also will do nothing for the men and women who can’t work because of their illnesses, and struggle to pay their mortgages and feed their families.

We are sure you are planning to come to New York on September 11th to honor those who died, as well you should, but it would be an insult to us if you were to come to New York and not say anything about the bill to help sick and dying 9/11 responders. After nine years of speeches and tributes but no action, we’ve heard enough. And sir if you choose not to come to New York on the 9th anniversary, then I implore you to make a public statement saying you support 9/11 responders, those effected by 9/11 and it’s aftermath and our bill HR.847 & S.1334. God bless you Mr. President, God bless America & God bless the tens of thousands of men & woman who need your support.

“Any nation that does not honor its heroes will not long endure”

– Abraham Lincoln

The Great American Bond Bubble

By JEREMY SIEGEL
AND JEREMY SCHWARTZ
Ten years ago we experienced the biggest bubble in U.S. stock market history—the Internet and technology mania that saw high-flying tech stocks selling at an excess of 100 times earnings. The aftermath was predictable: Most of these highfliers declined 80% or more, and the Nasdaq today sells at less than half the peak it reached a decade ago.

A similar bubble is expanding today that may have far more serious consequences for investors. It is in bonds, particularly U.S. Treasury bonds. Investors, disenchanted with the stock market, have been pouring money into bond funds, and Treasury bonds have been among their favorites. The Investment Company Institute reports that from January 2008 through June 2010, outflows from equity funds totaled $232 billion while bond funds have seen a massive $559 billion of inflows.

We believe what is happening today is the flip side of what happened in 2000. Just as investors were too enthusiastic then about the growth prospects in the economy, many investors today are far too pessimistic.

The rush into bonds has been so strong that last week the yield on 10-year Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS) fell below 1%, where it remains today. This means that this bond, like its tech counterparts a decade ago, is currently selling at more than 100 times its projected payout.

Shorter-term Treasury bonds are yielding even less. The interest rate on standard noninflation-adjusted Treasury bonds due in four years has fallen to 1%, or 100 times its payout. Inflation-adjusted bonds for the next four years have a negative real yield. This means that the purchasing power of this investment will fall, even if all coupons paid on the bond are reinvested. To boot, investors must pay taxes at the highest marginal tax rate every year on the inflationary increase in the principal on inflation-protected bonds—even though that increase is not received as cash and will not be paid until the bond reaches maturity.

Today the purveyors of pessimism speak of the fierce headwinds against any economic recovery, particularly the slow deleveraging of the household sector. But the leveraging data they use is the face value of the debt, particularly the mortgage debt, while the market has already devalued much of that debt to pennies on the dollar.

This suggests that if the household sector owes what the market believes that debt is worth, then effective debt ratios are much lower. On the other hand, if households do repay most of that debt, then the financial sector will be able to write-up hundreds of billions of dollars in loans and mortgages that were marked down, resulting in extraordinary returns. In either scenario, we believe U.S. economic growth is likely to accelerate.

Furthermore, economists generally agree that the most important determinant for long-term economic growth is productivity, not consumer demand. Despite the subpar productivity growth reported for the last quarter, the latest year-over-year productivity growth of 3.9% is almost twice the long-term average. For the first two quarters of this year productivity growth, at over 6%, was the highest since the 1960s.

From our perspective, the safest bet for investors looking for income and inflation protection may not be bonds. Rather, stocks, particularly stocks paying high dividends, may offer investors a more attractive income and inflation protection than bonds over the coming decade.

Yes, we can hear the catcalls now. Stock returns calculated off the broad-based indexes have been horrendous over the last decade. In 2009, the percentage decline in aggregate dividends was the largest since the Great Depression. But remember the last decade began at the peak of the technology bubble.

Those who bought “value” stocks during the tech bubble—stocks with good dividend yields and low price-to-earnings ratios—have done much better. From December 1999 through July 2010, the Russell 3000 Value Index returned 35% cumulatively while the Russell 3000 Index of all stocks still showed a loss.

Today, the 10 largest dividend payers in the U.S. are AT&T, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, Verizon Communications, Phillip Morris International, Pfizer, General Electric and Merck. They sport an average dividend yield of 4%, approximately three percentage points above the current yield on 10-year TIPS and over one percentage point ahead of the yield on standard 10-year Treasury bonds. Their average price-earnings ratio, based on 2010 estimated earnings, is 11.7, versus 13 for the S&P 500 Index. Furthermore, their earnings this year (a year that hardly could be considered booming economically) are projected to cover their dividend by more than 2 to 1.

Due to economic growth the dividends from stocks, in contrast with coupons from bonds, historically have increased more than the rate of inflation. The average dividend income from a portfolio of S&P 500 Index stocks grew at a rate of 5% per year since the index’s inception in 1957, fully one percentage point ahead of inflation over the period. That growth rate includes the disastrous dividend reductions that occurred in 2009, the worst year for dividend cuts by far since the Great Depression.

Those who are now crowding into bonds and bond funds are courting disaster. The last time interest rates on Treasury bonds were as low as they are today was in 1955. The subsequent 10-year annual return to bonds was 1.9%, or just slightly above inflation, and the 30-year annual return was 4.6% per year, less than the rate of inflation.

Furthermore, the possibility of substantial capital losses on bonds looms large. If over the next year, 10-year interest rates, which are now 2.8%, rise to 3.15%, bondholders will suffer a capital loss equal to the current yield. If rates rise to 4% as they did last spring, the capital loss will be more than three times the current yield. Is there any doubt that interest rates will rise over the next two decades as the baby boomers retire and the enormous government entitlement programs kick into gear?

With future government finances so precarious, private asset accumulation and dividend income must become the major sources of retirement funding. At current interest rates, government bonds will not be the answer. One hundred times earnings was the tipping point for the tech market a decade ago. We believe that the same is now true for government bonds.

Mr. Siegel is a professor of finance at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and a senior adviser to WisdomTree Inc. Mr.Schwartz is the director of research at WisdomTree Inc.

In Supporting The Ground Zero Mosque, Barack Obama Falls On His Sword

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, August 18, 2010

With President Barack Obama’s political dynasty already on life support, his decision to publicly back the hugely unpopular building of a Muslim mosque near Ground Zero confirms that Obama, or rather the advisors that pull his strings, have decided to commit political suicide and cut him loose from the Washington power structure, with the hope of fooling Americans with another establishment Republican as a legitimate alternative in 2012.

This issue isn’t about whether you believe the official story that 19 Muslims carried out 9/11, nor is it really about whether or not a mosque should be built near Ground Zero.

Constitutionally speaking of course, the government has no business whatsoever interfering in religion or private property rights under the First Amendment, which states, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

However, the important facet of this issue is not really about the rights and wrongs of the mosque, it’s about Obama politically choosing to lend support to something that he knows full well is vitriolically opposed by the vast majority of Americans.

Obama decided to throw has hat in the ring with a mere 20 per cent of Americans who support building the mosque, which is just a stone’s throw away from where the twin towers once stood. A CNN poll found 68 per cent of Americans oppose the idea. Whoever advised him to make this call, or whether Obama chose to do so himself, they had to be aware that coming down on the wrong side of such a hugely sensitive issue was an act of political hara-kiri.

Even Harry Reid, one of the most liberal representatives in the Senate, broke ranks with Obama in stating it was, “very obvious that the mosque should be built someplace else”.

The consequences of the decision, irrespective of any amount of backtracking, are clear, as Politico’s Roger Simon points out today, Obama will be a one-term President – if he even lasts that long.

Obama’s public support for the building of the mosque will only serve to embolden the significant and furious hardcore of Americans who believe that Obama is a secret Muslim on a mission to purge America of its Christian foundation. In reality, Obama is a servant of the elite and a Wall Street yes man, who now that his manufactured “change” corporate marketing brand has been popped, serves no purpose whatsoever to his globalist masters, who have obviously made the decision to sacrifice him politically in the hope that their wider agenda can be rescued.

Obama has to be extricated from the big government globalist agenda because he has become its poster child. Obama’s approval ratings have sunk to record lows in record time, and the jig is up. If the Democrats cannot separate themselves from the widely rejected Brand Obama, then they could be out of power for decades. Of course, in the wider scheme of things, the globalists will just offer up another establishment Republican as the solution to the devastation the Obama administration has wrought, which is exactly why Barry Soetoro is now being discredited and politically destroyed.

The only remaining salvation for Obama’s political career and his hopes of still being in the White House come January 2013 hinge on whether Israel will launch an attack on Iran, which many are now saying is imminent and could even happen within the next eight days.

Should Obama lend full American support to such an offensive, he will likely placate many of those on the right who are so upset about the building of the mosque. A war with Iran will wipe the mosque controversy off the front pages in an instant, and it may also give Obama the political capital to rebuild Americans’ faith in his leadership. Of course, the fact that it could also set off world war three is not seen as a major concern for the globalists.

However, absent such a mitigating factor, it is obvious that in expressing support for the highly unpopular mosque, Obama is knowingly falling on his sword, and may even be preparing to resign before the 2012 election as Roger Simon alludes to in his article.

The most obvious outcome however still remains that Obama will be so hated and discredited by 2012 that the Republicans could run almost anyone against him in the next election and be guaranteed victory, ensuring that Americans will once again be punished with another elitist water carrier for the new world order agenda, unless a political revolution occurs and they rally behind a genuine Constitutionalist like Congressman Ron Paul.

Paul Joseph Watson is the author of Order Out of Chaos and is the writer and editor of Alex Jones’ Prison Planet.com.

Obama’s Gulf ‘Swim’ Was Fake-He Lied Again

On August 15, AP reported that Obama gave his “personal assurances of (the) Gulf’s safety,” saying:
“Beaches all along the Gulf Coast are clean, they are safe, and they are open for business.” …
He Lied.

The same day, Britain’s government owned BBC reported: “Barack Obama has taken a swim in the Gulf of Mexico (to) reassure Americans that the waters are safe despite the recent oil spill.” US corporate media reporters repeated the message, CNN’s senior White House correspondent Ed Henry among them, saying; “Obama takes (the) plunge, swims in the Gulf (to show it’s safe and) open for business.” In fact, area businesses continue to be severely impacted, and the entire region is dangerously unsafe. As for Obama’s swim, on August 16, the London Independent reported that Obama and his daughter, Sasha, swam in a private Panama City Beach, Florida beach off Alligator Point in St. Andrew Bay, NOT part of the Gulf. Reporters were banned, no TV video permitted. “So….only the White House photographer was allowed to capture proceedings. The official picture was intended to provide evidence that the region’s beaches are back to normal.” … FALSE. A dangerously toxic oil/dispersant brew contaminates much, perhaps the entire Gulf. It’s poisoned and potentially lethal for decades, maybe generations. Nothing in it, should be ingested. Millions in the region are at risk. No one should swim in coastal waters or eat any Gulf seafood. Responsible officials should ban it. Instead, the ‘all-clear’ has been given. Obama, his officials, and BP executives are criminally liable. So are state governors, coastal mayors, and regional health authorities. Area residents with children should leave. Tourists should avoid the region. A growing catastrophe will continue for decades, including a silent epidemic of cancers and other diseases, as well as lives and livelihoods lost. That’s the major media’s unreported reality … worsening … NOT Improving Daily. (OEN – Stephen Lendman) (Webmaster’s Note: There IS a Military Base at Alligator Point … With a Large Pool.)

SUPRISE

http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=hkGzqpGx1KU